Poor HD Picture

[TheKrell]

My partner picked up a set of component cables, no change.

Don't take this the wrong way; I'm just trying to cover all possibilities. Are you absolutely positively certain that you switched inputs on your TV from HDMI to component cables when you did this test?

On top of the HD issue, my blockbuster on demand has not worked since day one either. If I unplug the receiver it will download 20% of the movie I am trying to watch, and then just fail. Tried wireless and ethernet connections, same problem on every Hopper we have had.

I think this is a separate issue attributable to problems on your local LAN, or possibly your ISP. I seriously doubt that wired Ethernet would fail on "every Hopper" you have had. But strange things sometimes happen. I was going crazy for about a week, all due to an intermittent connection inside a wired Ethernet cable. Throwing out the problem cable resolved my issue completely. But failures of cables are rare; failures of wireless connections are common.

 

[cafleming1987]

Don't take this the wrong way; I'm just trying to cover all possibilities. Are you absolutely positively certain that you switched inputs on your TV from HDMI to component cables when you did this test?



I think this is a separate issue attributable to problems on your local LAN, or possibly your ISP. I seriously doubt that wired Ethernet would fail on "every Hopper" you have had. But strange things sometimes happen. I was going crazy for about a week, all due to an intermittent connection inside a wired Ethernet cable. Throwing out the problem cable resolved my issue completely. But failures of cables are rare; failures of wireless connections are common.

Yep, switched the TV from HDMI 1 to Component 1. The ethernet connection shows "OK" on the test, yet every movie I try to download says download failed. The apps work just fine, but VOD refuses to download. We've tried different routers, I even connected it directly to the cable modem with no difference.

 

[cafleming1987]

I don't know much about the coax going from the node to the hopper, other than when we had Cox they suggested it be replaced (Dish installer tapped into that coax wiring). At the time I assumed they were just trying to make some additional money, but not so sure now. The wiring is old, that much is obvious. The installer didn't replace anything, just re-routed the cabling from the Cox box into the node.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF the installer didn't run new cable in your house their is a good possibility that their are some extra splitters in your lines in your house and that can cause problems with your picture quality. Get DISH to rerun all NEW coax in your house from the dish to each room in your house. They are supposed to do that anyway, when they install it. Also check and make sure you aren't having problems with your hdmi cable to your tv from the receiver itself . Change it out from the dvd or bluray player and check to see if the picture quality improves or put a new hdmi cable on it to see if the picture improves. Sometimes the receiver itself can have a faulty hdmi port. It happened on the old Vip series 622 when they first came out. IF you get new cables run and all your nodes looked at or changed out and your hdmi cable is replaced and maybe the receiver itself, and you still have bad picture quality , then I say your out of luck. I can tell you at my house I ran my own coax ,installed my own dish and installed my own hoppers and joeys and my picture quality is great on all 4 of my tvs. I'm not an installer ,just a DISH sub for 16 years come the 18th of this month.

 

[cafleming1987]

IF the installer didn't run new cable in your house their is a good possibility that their are some extra splitters in your lines in your house and that can cause problems with your picture quality. Get DISH to rerun all NEW coax in your house from the dish to each room in your house. They are supposed to do that anyway, when they install it. Also check and make sure you aren't having problems with your hdmi cable to your tv from the receiver itself . Change it out from the dvd or bluray player and check to see if the picture quality improves or put a new hdmi cable on it to see if the picture improves. Sometimes the receiver itself can have a faulty hdmi port. It happened on the old Vip series 622 when they first came out. IF you get new cables run and all your nodes looked at or changed out and your hdmi cable is replaced and maybe the receiver itself, and you still have bad picture quality , then I say your out of luck. I can tell you at my house I ran my own coax ,installed my own dish and installed my own hoppers and joeys and my picture quality is great on all 4 of my tvs. I'm not an installer ,just a DISH sub for 16 years come the 18th of this month.

Thank you for the reply. I have a tech coming out tomorrow afternoon so I will ask them to run new coax, there are only 2 tvs so it should not be that bad for them. I received a call from another Dish rep a little while ago, and she did seem sincerely apologetic about our issues. She asked if we would give the tech the chance to fix everything tomorrow before we consider canceling. She also filed a complaint about the tech we had today (extremely condescending tone and very rude), so hopefully we will get someone decent tomorrow. This house is older, and I have no idea what the wiring looks like inside the walls and whatnot. So running new cables couldn't hurt. As far as HDMI cables, I have tried 3 different cables on all 3 HDMI inputs. My mom and her boyfriend have Dish, and their picture is literally night and day difference from mine. Its obvious from seeing their service that Dish is capable of very good HD quality, but if I cannot receive that level of service for whatever reason I would like to know so I can figure out the best course of action. What I have a problem with is the horrible technicians we have had come into our home, do absolutely nothing to correct the problem, and worst of all talk down to me because I expect good service. Our initial installation tech was great, but the techs since then have been horrible.

 

[sparc]

the most important line is the one from the hopper to the node. The joeys have much lower requirements for coax so that one probably won't need replacing at all since everything is working fine on that TV.

 

[sca]

coax would have very little to do with this. any issue would be bewteen box and tv. since the box and cables from it have all been replaced i would suspect the tv. hard to say. i've been to my share of jobs where the customer did not like the hd picture and i could see absolutely nothing wrong with it. biggest culprit for this is the sony bravia. these expensive monsters just have motion blur in a lot of cases. havent really seen this issue with lg but, who knows.
you mention that it was fine when first installed and crappy evers since. that is the biggest mystery right there.

 

[acostapimps]

Is almost like cable service, when the cable is old or bad you get bad picture or no picture at all, so I would say check the cables to see if it's up to par, then check the nodes if it needs replacing (which it shouldn't have especially newly installed) and most definitely the signal levels and resolution settings.

 

[cafleming1987]

It is most definitely not my TV. Cox looked just fine on it, and every other HD component looks great as well. It is still under warranty plus I have the protection plan on it, so I may call LG just to satisfy Dish. The fact that it looked ok before is bugging the hell out of me. No one can seem to figure it out, and its just getting frustrating having to wait around for these techs. I have gone through every setting on my TV and nothing helps. The added problems with the VOD is just adding to the frustration.

 

[sparc]

try the joey on the HDTV... of course that will probably require rewiring the node, but it's worth a shot

 

[cafleming1987]

try the joey on the HDTV... of course that will probably require rewiring the node, but it's worth a shot

Good idea, I'll have the tech do it while he is here.

 

[patmurphey]

A silly question - do the channels that you are looking at have the "HD" ghost label in the guide? I'm not at home, but buried in the menus is an option to show HD or SD priority.

Also - what happens when you cycle through the format options on the Dish remote?

 

[lucky86]

A silly question - do the channels that you are looking at have the "HD" ghost label in the guide? I'm not at home, but buried in the menus is an option to show HD or SD priority.

The options are HD/SD or HD only.

 

[Scherrman]

This is a very odd issue. Like others have said I can't see how the coax could affect the picture quality for the receiver, it just doesn't make sense. I will say though, when nothing else seems to work you might as well try replacing whatever you can, ya never know.

 

[Bobby]

This is a very odd issue. Like others have said I can't see how the coax could affect the picture quality for the receiver, it just doesn't make sense. I will say though, when nothing else seems to work you might as well try replacing whatever you can, ya never know.

Unless, as mentioned earlier, that coax has a splitter in it somewhere, maybe under the house or in the attic...

 

[gdarwin]

Have you tried taking the TV to Mom's house?

 

[cafleming1987]

No I haven't, it is a 55in LG 55LM8600 so there is a major inconvenience in moving it . Having a technician for the TV out next week but they have their doubts since other components work just fine, I agree with them but I am trying to cover every base here. Dish is supposed to be here by 5pm today, so we will see what happens. I have 2 major issues going on, and today will be the 4th technician visit. Neither issue has been fixed and they just keep doing the same things...over and over. The techs that have come out to my house seem completely unwilling to make sure the problem is ACTUALLY fixed before they take off. With the VOD for instance, I asked them to stick around for a few minutes to see that it will keep failing after the reset or hopper swap. Nope, they couldn't get out quickly enough. I understand they have appointments but come on.

 

[KenSoren]

Did you see the problems on your local stations that are turned on to PTAT, or did the cable stations look bad too? We have been having lots of drop outs and pixelation on our LA local stations starting about Monday this week, but didn't notice the cable channels having the same problem.

Just a thought.

 

[Poke]

Have you checked to see if you TV has any firmware updates? Most likely will not make much of a difference but something to check and see plus have you tried different HDMI cables?

 

[cafleming1987]

Have you checked to see if you TV has any firmware updates? Most likely will not make much of a difference but something to check and see plus have you tried different HDMI cables?

Firmware is UTD, and I have tried 3 different HDMI cables. Dish guy is here, he took one look at the coax and said that it wasn't 3GHZ, so he is running a new line right now. I will report back once he is done.